Unilever enters collaboration with Alibaba

Food and laundry detergent manufacturer Unilever will collaborate more closely with Chinese Alibaba. The company has been active on Tmall.com for years, but this new collaboration should help increase sales in Chinese rural areas.

Dwindling sales

Unilever has had its own store on Tmall.com since 2011, but sales were dwindling over the past few months. Particularly the Chinese rural areas have been a cause of concern as the group is struggling to sell products there.

Thanks to its collaboration with Alibaba, Unilever will now get access to the Chinese giant's online marketing department, among other things. This should help Unilever to better cater its online ads to its intended audience. Alibaba will also help Unilever fight the overwhelming market of counterfeit products and improve its distribution capabilities.

More than half of Unilever's turnover comes from emerging markets, including China, where its sales dropped 20 % in 2014's last quarter because of a slower economic growth.

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